Earth and Space Sciences Regents, June 2025, question 45
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What the figure shows
The passage says the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), a non-profit group in Namibia, Africa, harvests thornbushes to make Bushblok, a small log used as a biomass fuel source. It also says that overgrazing, hunting and the removal of mature trees changed the landscape to one dominated by thornbushes. The four choices are drilling for oil, mining of natural gas, use of solar panels and burning woodland trees.
How to think about it
A renewable energy source is one that nature replaces on a human time scale. It can still be used up if it is taken faster than it grows back. For each listed source, use the passage and what you know from class to decide whether nature replaces it on a human time scale.
Increasing the use of biomass is one of many actions that the CCF is taking to reduce the rate of climate change. Which additional solution, if increased, could be used along with biomass as another renewable energy source?
Choice 3 is right. Solar panels turn sunlight into electricity. Sunlight reaches Earth every day and is not used up, so solar energy is renewable, and solar panels release no carbon dioxide while they make electricity.
Oil is a fossil fuel. It formed over millions of years, so it is nonrenewable, and burning it adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This choice may come from thinking that any fuel that burns is renewable.
Natural gas is also a fossil fuel. It forms over millions of years and is nonrenewable, and burning it releases carbon dioxide. This choice may come from confusing 'found in nature' with 'replaced by nature'.
Trees can regrow, but the passage says the removal of mature trees helped damage the cheetah's habitat. Burning more woodland trees would work against the goals of the Cheetah Conservation Fund. This choice may come from treating any wood fuel as the same as using thornbushes.
